Guest post - Claireabellemakes

Hello guys! I am Claire from the craft blog Claireabellemakes and I’m super excited to be here on Jo’s blog today whilst she takes a well deserved break.

Recently, I treated myself to a new Janome XL601 computerised machine and have spent my Tuesday evenings engrossed in the Great British Sewing Bee programme. I’m not ashamed to say I watched repeats too!

I figured as you are fans of Jo and her blog, most of you will also love crafts, so I want to share with you my favourite sites for sewing. These are all great for beginners and experienced sewers.

Florence writes this lovely blog to document her daily sewing, share patterns, tutorials and inspiration. A great site for pretty inspiration and learning techniques.

The Sewing Directory does exactly what it says and lists workshops, patterns, techniques, events, sales and much more. They run fantastic competitions on a regular basis and provide tips and advice on buying and servicing machines. I’d recommend their newsletter for all the latest in the sewing world!

The next blog is one I have followed since I started reading blogs and I adore Georgina’s Etsy store of felt toys. Check the tutorials tab for a step by step guide to French Seams, making a basic quilt and hot water bottle covers made from clothes. Each month, Georgina rewards one lucky reader with a “Present in the Post”.

Kollabora is a fabulous US site with the tagline “We Are What We Make”. Yarn lovers amongst you will likely use Ravelry, so think of this as a similar networking/project sharing platform for Sewing, Jewellery marking and yarn crafts. Still developing and adding new categories, the site boast a shop (UK shipping coming soon) and has a whole bunch of friendly, inspiring and creative members. I utterly love it.

I’m dying to visit New York to drop into Kollabora HQ for one of their open labs!